EVERTEC, Inc. (NYSE:EVTC) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

EVERTEC, Inc. (NYSE:EVTC) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,500,000 shares, a decrease of 7.4% from the October 31st total of 2,700,000 shares. Approximately 4.0% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 387,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.5 days.

EVERTEC Price Performance

Shares of EVTC traded up $0.18 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $35.66. The stock had a trading volume of 27,318 shares, compared to its average volume of 389,475. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $34.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $33.75. EVERTEC has a 52 week low of $28.76 and a 52 week high of $42.21. The company has a market capitalization of $2.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.97.

EVERTEC (NYSE:EVTC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The business services provider reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.13. EVERTEC had a net margin of 10.20% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The firm had revenue of $211.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.51 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.72 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 22.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that EVERTEC will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EVERTEC Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Monday, October 28th will be given a $0.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, October 28th. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. EVERTEC’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.63%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EVERTEC

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC raised its stake in EVERTEC by 36.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,114,244 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $308,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,440,680 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in shares of EVERTEC during the second quarter valued at $8,143,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in EVERTEC by 5.0% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,370,476 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $145,318,000 after buying an additional 208,183 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in EVERTEC by 9.0% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,298,373 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $76,421,000 after buying an additional 189,637 shares during the period. Finally, F M Investments LLC purchased a new stake in EVERTEC in the 2nd quarter worth about $5,672,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on EVTC. Morgan Stanley upgraded EVERTEC from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $33.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Susquehanna lowered shares of EVERTEC from a “neutral” rating to a “negative” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $38.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th.

About EVERTEC

EVERTEC, Inc engages in transaction processing business and financial technology in Latin America and the Caribbean. The company operates through four segments: Payment Services – Puerto Rico & Caribbean; Latin America Payments and Solutions; Merchant Acquiring; and Business Solutions. It provides merchant acquiring services, which enable point of sales and e-commerce merchants to accept and process electronic methods of payment, such as debit, credit, prepaid, and electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards.